US suffers third worst wildfire year in decade

Year to date, 2017 is the third-worst year in the past decade in terms of fire coverage for the United States, which has been suffering more than 35,000 wildfires.


According to data updated Monday by the National Interagency Fire Center, on July 24, there are a total of 38 large wildfires burning in the country, including 7 in California, 4 in state of Idaho, Neveda, Utah and Washington, and 18 in Montana.

On Monday, there are 10 new large fires were reported.

In 2017, wildfires in the country has been scorching 4,979,945 acres (2.02 million square kilometers), of which Lodgepole Complex Fire in remote central Montana could be the worst wildfire this summer with 226,000 acres (914.6 square kilometers) in size and only 5 percent contained till Monday.

In California, wildfires are spreading throughout more than 217,000 acres (878.2 square kilometers) in total, an area about 10 percent larger than New York City.

The most concerning of the 7 large wildfires raging in California is the Detwiler fire, which has driven more than 4,000 residents from their homes and is threatening the historic town of Mariposa outside Yosemite National Park.

More than 3,000 firefighters has been battling with the 48,000-acres (194 square kilometers) blaze for more than one week but only contained 7 percent.
  [globaltimes.cn/china.org.cn/Xinhua]
25/7/17